Forgiveness
by Bustahead
Summary: The final in the trilogy of Virgil oneshots I've been doing. Please read and review and tell me what you think.


**Forgiveness**

The breath is knocked out of my body as you swing your blade, missing me by inches. I am a fool and I close in upon you, bringing my sword forward, ready to run you through. You are smarter than that though, you have grown from the child you had once been, and you knock me backwards with a well placed kick to the stomach.

Looking at you now, you'd never have thought that you were so skinny as a child. Father would call you "skin and bones" with great affection. He would smile afterwards and laugh, and joke that you didn't eat enough. To see you now would make his heart swell with pride. It doesn't take a genius to note the strength that lies within you, to know that there is some almost tangible power sleeping inside you.

I've seen you transform many many times. You would not be a fool to think that perhaps I would have grown used to your transformation, and the sight of your demonic entity. All the same, it surprises me now. I have fought with you twice before, and each time you turned into a demon. It takes my breath away yet again, and I am stunned momentarily. I do not move, I do not breath, I utter no sound. Your transformation is simply breathtaking.

We stand there quietly, simply staring each other down. Something inside me knows that you will not win, and I won't either. We will both lose something from this. What will I lose? The last part that was remotely human in me? My brother? My purpose of life. With you dead, what will become of me? What will fuel me? What will preserve me and keep me above death?

What will you lose? Your sanity? Your brother? You can't lose it, Dante, because you think you already have. You think there is nothing left to live for, because it's already gone and has been snatched away from you mercilessly. So…maybe…maybe I can cause you pain, no matter what happens to me. If I die, I can hurt you still. If I live, well…you'll die and you'll meet our father in heaven or hell.

I smile slightly behind the mask I don. I watch you as you frown slightly, your cold cold eyes glinting with irritation that I should be so bold as to stand in your way. After the initial kick, you probably think that I should have attacked by now. After all, that's what the rest of Mundus' minions did, didn't they? I know you better than any of them. I journeyed alongside you, but you never knew.

I unsheathe my sword, watch your bemused face as I bring it forward, as though to lash out at you; your body tenses confirming that I had succeeded in scaring you. You watch in confusion as my blade dances through the air like liquid light, your eyes follow the blade as it weaves to the right, to the left, coming out towards you, before finally being buried point first into the ground. I pause momentarily, and your eyes quickly shoot back up to frown at me.

I was always able to read you like a book.

You ask yourself silently "What was the point?" "Why is he teasing me like this?" "Who _is_ this guy?". I see your face, and I know that now is the time that I should reveal myself, remove this heavy mask, and cast it aside. I slowly raise my arms, allowing the blue mist to cover me from head to toe, concealing me from sight. As the mist covers my face, I look upon your eyes, and I read something akin to intrigue shining from them.

The mist disappears, and my head is free from that mask which had started to weigh so heavily upon me. I look into your eyes, a triumphant grin on my face, waiting for the recognition to dawn upon you, waiting for you to stare at me with horror as you realize who exactly you have been fighting.

It never comes.

You do not know me or comprehend who exactly I am anymore…you, who is meant to my brother. You, who is meant to carry the name Sparda with pride! You, who swore revenge on the names of Mother and I and yet you do not realize who stands here before you!

Was that all a pretence then? To try and ennoble yourself? To swear that you would gain revenge on your mother and brother, who stands here before you, alive? How do you not know that it is me? I share everything with you! The hair, the eyes, the face, everything! Can you not see yourself in the mirror each day? Did you not understand a thing when I stepped out of the mirror in your form? Are you really as dense as I thought you were?

You used Mother's name falsely. I've seen the picture you keep on your desk. Had Mother still been alive and had come before you, would you have recognized her without the picture there to remind you of her looks? Do you have no memory of us?

Fool. You shall rue the day you swore revenge on the name of the ones you cannot remember.

We fight, our yells echo and bounce off the walls, our swords sing the grim eerie song of death as steel clashes against steel. But soon, only one of us is left standing. I gasp as I fall to my knees, groaning with pain. My blood seeps out of my body, onto my hands, onto the floor. You're bleeding too. I look up at you, to see your face. You deliberate over my death, hesitating slightly. You make no sign to move towards me or away from me, but I can read the doubt in your eyes.

I flee. It is pointless to stay here and let you kill me. With the new knowledge that your eyes granted me, I refuse to die. I refuse to rest until I know that you are under the soil, and your name has turned to dust along with your bones. For now, I will let you go. You blink again as the mists return to envelop me, allowing me to move as far away as I can from you.

But I am weakened, and I cannot move far enough. I content myself with moving to the darkest most hidden corner I can find, and I watch you from there. You bend down to pick up something from the floor. I feel my neck, and I curse as I realize that I have foolishly, carelessly dropped my amulet.

Yet I watch as a change comes over you. Your eyes darken, you are pensive. Could it be that you have remembered? No…you're too foolish to remember, you proved that to me when I revealed myself to you.

I watch you as you sigh heavily and stand before turning to the doors. You run right through them, never giving the inscription a second look. I close my eyes as I hear the doors slam shut after you. There is no need for me to read out the inscription on the door. I already know…

_Through me the way into the suffering city, through me the way to the eternal pain, through me the way that runs among the lost…Abandon every hope, who enter here…_

Abandon every hope…that you may ever gain the forgiveness of your brother.


End file.
